"Supreme art is a traditional statement of certain heroic and religious truth, passed on from age to age, modified by individual genius, but never abandoned." William Butler Yeats

Friday, August 28, 2015

Captain America 3: Civil War & Who Is Fighting Who

One of the examples when an image is worth a thousand words: Captain America, Steve Rogers, and Iron Man, Tony Stark, are truly a part of each other: it's not just that Cap supplies the morals, honor and integrity, and that Tony is the money and cool factor, it's that both men inspire each other and a multitude of others. It's not just a "civil war," of two sides fighting each other, this is also an "internal war" when they are fighting themselves, within themselves. In putting the theme of the film into such a simple question, "Whose side are you on?" the film makers unleash, intentionally, the immense complexities that have been carefully placed to unravel over these past several years, so the violence of what we are going to witness will touch our hearts, but also our minds.

So, on Iron Man's side is Black Panther, who will be portrayed by Chadwick Boseman, whom you may remember from 42, the Jackie Robinson story; Marvel is breaking its usual formula introducing him before he has had his own stand-alone film, and his character is significant enough to make the first real poster concept art that has been publicly displayed, so we will see what happens. Also with Iron Man is The Vision which we met in The Avengers 2 and Black Widow, with War Machine (Don Cheadle, Iron Patriot). Siding with Captain America is Bucky Barnes who we saw with Captain America in the mid-credits scene of Ant-Man, as well as Hawkeye, Falcon and Agent 13, Sharon Carter (you know, the "nurse" who lived down the hall from Cap in Captain America 2? She's rumored to be Peggy Carter's niece. If you look at Captain America's left shoulder, you will see Ant Man there as well. Now, in the upper-rightish corner, above Falcon's right wing, there is something else flyiing in the sky, and we will discuss that below.

This is actually a big deal.
There are some potentially huge spoilers involving Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers in this post; if you don't want to have any idea of what is going to happen in the film, PLEASE STOP READING NOW.
Regardless of whether you love comic book films, are lukewarm to them or hope another is never made, Captain American: Civil War is a culturally important film because of the enormous political centerpiece of what rights the government has and what rights the individual has; if you aren't in the US currently, we are in a "civil war" regarding registration of fire arms and the rights of citizens to protect themselves; this issue will be examined in the upcoming film. I have to admit, there are some surprises in which side is teaming up with Iron Man, Tony Stark, who is in favor of the government registration accord, and Captain America, Steve Rogers, who opposes the accord. (And yes, we have seen something similar to this in trailer footage for Batman vs Superman, when Superman has to appear before a Senate panel and is held guilty for causing damage). Why are Captain America and Iron Man split?

Audience members are heavily invested in both characters: we love Steve Rogers because he is so good and noble, and we love Tony Stark because he is so rarely either of those things. What's the purpose of Civil War? There are at least two. First, in America, we are really experiencing a civil war culturally, and CA3 will tap into that and explore what is happening and why. Secondly, just as Thor will be going through Ragnarok in Thor 3, this is The Avengers' Ragnarok. Ragnarok is meant to completely destroy everything so it can be rebuilt better and stronger. The Avengers need to purge themselves because the greatest fight in the galaxy awaits them in Infinity Wars, and they will all have to be as strong as possible.

Events from Iron Man 3 and The Avengers 2: Age Of Ultron have built up Tony's character to be remorseful over the amount of damage that occurs when they have to fight their enemies; knowing that Tony (likely with the help of Bruce Banner) built the Hulk Buster, which we saw in action in The Avengers 2 after Scarlet Witch got inside the "big guy's" head, Stark has a sense of responsibility that each of the heroes could go rogue at any time and will need to be taken down. Now, here are two "hypocritical" points that make Tony look bad. First, in Iron Man 2, the government wanted the Iron Man suit and Tony refused to give it to them, but now he's siding with the government? Secondly, in The Avengers 2, Tony built Ultron without telling anyone; suddenly, he's all for telling the government? Granted, Tony will probably have a moment of meditation and feel the burden of his past mistakes and feel he's getting on the proper road by agreeing to the accords, however, there is a considerable amount of baggage for Tony to deal with, which leads us to Captain America.

Hawkeye has "new threads" for CA3 and he looks pretty chummy with Ant-Man on his right shoulder. Why would the new costume design leave one of Hawkeye's arms exposed? Because Hawkeye himself has been exposed: as having a family, and so now he's incredibly vulnerable. It was possible that Hawkeye was going to take CA 3 off, but instead, he appears to be one of the leading characters, especially since his friendship with Natasha will be sorely tested as they take different sides. We know from The Avengers 2 that Clint Barton has a wife and three kids, as well as a home out in the country which is off the records of the government files, and he intends to keep it that way so hackers who would tap into the private lives of heroes won't be able to find his, which is an important reason why Cap and his friends are going to be against the accords: they want private lives, too. That's why they are willing to risk everything to save others, they know the joy of having a home to go to, raising a family and dwelling in peace and security and they won't permit that to be jeopardized in any way.

Why would Captain America NOT want to sign the accords? In Captain America: the First Avenger, who is he fighting? Hitler, and what was Hitler all about? Taking people's freedom away and putting the government in control of everything, so we basically have Captain America because we had Hitler, and because Captain America lived through Hitler, he knows "Hitler-style" accords meant to rob people of their freedom. Now, what about heroes that are missing from the poster above?

This is one of two possibly big spoilers in CA 3: the death of Peggy Carter. There would be several ways to interpret this, however, I am going to wait because I think the film will prefer to interpret it for us. The other possible big spoiler is the death of Captain America himself., Steve Rogers. We know Chris Evens is signed on through CA 3, but Stan Sebastian who plays Bucky Barnes is signed on for more films than is Evans, leading commentators to assume that, as in the comic books, Rogers dies and Bucky picks up the shield and carries on in his friend's place after he has come out of his brainwashing induced state (which appears to have happened at the end of Ant-Man).

Thor is supposedly en route back to Asgard. Realizing that Loki has caused some kind of trouble after his vision in The Avengers 2, Thor is preparing for the total apocalypse that will destroy him, then resurrect him and make him even stronger so he's in prime shape for The Avengers 3 &4 The Infinity Wars. Given how their romance is becoming more real, it's surprising that we don't yet see Bruce Banner and whether he sides with Black Widow or fights against her. All the actors have signed contracts giving them certain deals and a certain number of films; Banner may just not be in this one, as we left him possibly swimming towards Fiji at the end of The Avengers 2. What about Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch? She was set to go through Avenger-training with Captain America, will she side with him? There is also the possibility that Evangeline Lilly's Wasp will play a role, given the adjacent end credits with Captain America, Falcon and Bucky Barnes at the end of Ant-Man. We also have no idea who the new, high school-aged Spider Man will be teaming up with, but we know he is in the film and will have some major role. Even though they aren't heroes, Nick Fury and Maria Hill have been integral parts of the plots, and we would expect to see them in the film in some sort of capacity. There is also the rumor that Doctor Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, may be getting an appearance into this film, but, again, IF he does, we don't know which side. This leads us to our last point,...

The official synopsis for the film is, that after a new villain has been revealed and significant damage caused (in the beginning of the film) world governments ban together to form a international oversight committee to track and authorize the heroes fighting villains because of all the damage that is being done. In the bottom image, between Cap and Falcon, in the sky, is a ship, and that maybe Nick Fury/what remains of all of SHIELD. Since Sharon Carter, Agent 13, on Cap's right, has sided with Cap, it's likely Fury and whatever remains of the organization will as well. We know that Daniel Bruhl (Rush), Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), William Hurt and Frank Grillo (as Crossbones from CA 2) are all in the film, however, their roles aren't being specified/played up, but they will be important in the actual plot.

Some of the "aligning of teams" may be more personal than political. It's not shocking to see The Vision aligned with Iron Man because Jarvis was Tony's AI system for so long, of course he would be loyal to Tony, but it is shocking, knowing the deep friendship between Natasha and Clint that Black Widow and Hawkeye will be pitted against each other. Why does the "personal" over the "political" matter? It's a theme Marvel will be exploring with the plot details, but it's basically an opposition of emotions vs. intellect. Captain America is against the accords because he knows what that can lead to; The Vision is probably siding with Tony because of loyalty to Stark as is War Machine. Iron Man's team is most likely going with the accords because of fear: fear of what they themselves as individuals may do, and fear of what the others can do; Cap's team is confidence in the hearts of themselves and the others to always do what is right, and the empirical evidence of the government doing what is wrong.

Benedict Cumberbatch is expected to make an appearance in CA3, even if briefly, as Stephen Strange, aka, Doctor Strange, before getting his own film next year, with a larger role reserved for him in the Infinity War films. Likewise, the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy will be involved in Infinity Wars as well as a group called The Inhumans, those who are meant to be basically Mutants in a universe where the word "Mutant" is owned by another company. It's being speculated that Peter Quill's (Chris Pratt) father is one of The Inhumans. The female character of Captain Marvel may be making a brief appearance in Infinity War Part 1 before her own movie, and then again in Infinity War Part 2. As far as Infinity War films are concerned, it's being speculated that The Avengers and company will be defeated and seriously down and trodden in the first episode, while they eventually pull themselves together and manage victory in the second chapter.

So, Captain America: Civil War sees the return of the successful Russo brothers directing the film, and they will be directing Infinity Wars I and II, back-to-back, each film taking about 9 months to shoot and being released within just a year of each other. Likewise, to make Civil War as spectacular as possible, IMAX cameras, which are now lighter than previously, will be used throughout the entire filming process, rather than just specific action scenes, as is usually the case.

About Me

This blog is dedicated to the glory of Jesus Christ.
Email thoughts and comments to thefineartdiner@gmail.com.
Please note: there is never just one correct interpretation, and I know that, I just rarely mention it nowadays; please do not think that, just because I have chosen to post one interpretation over another, doesn't mean that I think my interpretation is exclusively correct or other positions not possible. I would also like to point out that, we are living in a very defined, volatile culture with dynamic politics at play on the international stage and, whether you like to admit it or not, those elements go into the creation of art, which is why I include the political elements in my interpretations.
Thank you, have a nice day.